The Foot of Death

Sunday, April 19, 2009

I don't know when it happened, but the discovery was made tonight when I put out the trash.
After tying up the bag and removing it from the can, a tell-tale odor was left behind. I knew exactly what it was. One of the mice visiting my house had met its end in or around my trash can.
I looked inside. Mouse poop. I looked underneath. Nothing. I searched around the can, under the recycle bin, under the wine cooler — nada. Then I had a horrible realization.
I dismantled the step can, screw by screw, and prepared myself for discovery. I was right. Inside the mechanism was the sad remains of a mouse. And as if this wasn't enough, my quick postmortem of the flattened body told me everything I needed to know.
At some point a mouse had wriggled its way into the step mechanism of the can. Unknowingly, I obviously stepped on the pedal to open the can, and crushed the animal to death.
This is not the way I wanted to end my weekend.
And now I'm out of bleach.

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